External scan reports must be generated through an ASV company. An important distinction is that the person running the scan does not have to be an employee of the ASV company. You can manage your own scans through the ASV's portal. The report will contain a page that has the ASV number associated with the company that performed the scan. If you're ever audited or have to submit your report to your acquiring bank, the auditor/bank will be looking for that number on the report. Basically, you cannot scan your own perimeter with your own copy of Nessus, generate a report, and say you're compliant. It must be done by an ASV company.

Internal scan reports can be done by anyone knowledgeable in Vulnerability Scanning/Management. It should not be managed by a person responsible for maintaining the systems being scanned, though (separation of duties).

Hope that helps.

Last edited by ziggy_567 on Mon Jan 14, 2013 11:52 am, edited 1 time in total.

Any person can use the ASV products of any of these companies to produce scan reports that will be accepted for a PCI QSA audit. It doesn't matter if you are an employee of an ASV, the company being scanned, or some other third-party.

Internal scans can be done by any "qualified" internal security person. PCI does not define what qualified means but I suspect the day will come when they start requiring internal folks to become ISA or PCIP. Your QSA determines whether this is being properly managed, not the council. Yes, much room for interpretation. Welcome to PCI.

External (internet facing) scans must be done by the ASV. The ASV MUST do the scanning but you will have access to the reports. The ASV will also handle documentation for exceptions. The ASV is responsible for the validity of that scan, and their license depends on its accuracy. The customer cannot manage that process but they can certainly work with their ASV for remediation consulting and providing documentation to support requested exceptions. What confuses people is you might have access to manage a hosted scanner in your ASV environment. It's not the same as the ASV console.